Author Archives: Matthew Sorrento

Picture this: a secluded scientist waits in a checkout line for his new love interest to return with an item. An unusual pickup for him, she had invaded his radio interview about bird flu (he’s an expert) and then asked him to bed when they had drinks.

In the first half of the twentieth century, film was in love with the newspapers. Stories of reporters and publishers abounded, not the least being, of course, Citizen Kane, based on William Randolph Hearst. Viewers laughed (rightfully) at a joke concerning radio in Raoul Walsh’s The Roaring Twenties, though the bit really reflected love for [...]

In his original review of Raising Arizona, Roger Ebert describes Nicolas Cage’s character as having graduated from the “Rooster Cogburn school of elocution.” Even though the critic loved the original film of True Grit, he wasn’t championing Arizona, which he thought to be artificial and distracting in its language. How ironic for him to see [...]

Those who love hearing fashion discussed as serious art will love this documentary, a portrait of the late iconic French designer, Yves Saint Laurent. The film enters the story of Laurent by learning that his sizable art collection will be auctioned by his long-time business and romantic partner, Pierre Berge. Laurent’s legacy, as told by [...]

De Niro’s long since served as an inspiration to Scorsese – it now appears that the paycheck is the actor’s main motivation. He hasn’t worked for the filmmaker since the 1990s, when the former starred in the powerfully creepy remake of “Cape Fear.” In this film, the director tributed classic crime with a modern, more [...]

Peter Jackson’s head must have been spinning as he read Alice Sebold’s disturbing if obvious novel, “The Lovely Bones.” After viewing the film version, we’d guess that the novel brought many a fantastical set piece to the filmmaker’s vision. The otherworld of the novel’s dead girl, Susie Salmon, suggests all sorts of whims: trees bursting [...]

No mercy is shown to the players in Ballast, and not much more to the film’s viewers. The camera quietly trails the travails of a family in the Mississippi Delta. It documents what at first appears to be the minutiae of their lives, though soon proves to be the actions and results of traumatic, life [...]

Even the more inventive thrillers will fall back on convention, as this new French entry does in its opening minutes. Here we find an idyllic outdoor dinner, in which the camera circles guests to create a tone so dreamlike that, alas, we’re ready for a doze. At times like these, no one seems to have [...]

One image in this film is purely apocalyptic: a computer reproduction shows specs swirling away from a mass of white, which director Herzog tells us in voiceover is a polar cap losing iceberg-sized pieces into a warming sea. The creeping destruction is subtle, even if our species grants it a fast approach. It is one [...]